There is so much misinformed information going on out there in the international oil trading world that it is hard to know where to begin. There are four important pieces of information I think one needs to be aware of.

• Shell Screen London• NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Company)• Lloyds of London• Pratts’Understanding and knowing the truth and facts about oil commodity trading will diminish your chances of being defrauded.

"Shell Screen Company" in London run by Lloyds of London or the NNPC, (Nigerian National Petroleum Company) or anyone else. The “Shell Screen” does not exist, it is a complete lie….. A well executed oil scam. ......

2. Lloyds of London… Many misunderstand what Lloyds of London really is.Lloyd's is the world's leading British insurance market place providing specialist insurance services (underwriters) to high risk businesses in over 200* countries and territories.

Over 300 years ago Lloyd’s started out in Edward Lloyd’s Coffee House in the city of London, UK, ( http://www.solarnavigator.net/lloyds_of_london.htm ) as a place where people with exposure to risks, could meet people with capital who, for a price, would agree to insure them. The Society of Lloyds was incorporated by 1871. By the turn of the century the traditional club of marine underwriters had become an international market place for high insurance risks of almost every type. I recommend that you visit the Lloyds web sitewww.lloyds.com which will provide you with more information of the many services and the Underwriters, that Lloyd’s of London provide today. Posting or tracking vessels is not one of their services.

Many companies will track vessel for a fee, one of them is http://www.lloydsmiu.com which has no connection with Lloyds of London. http://www.hapag-lloyd.com/en/home.html is a large liner shipping company with over 130 ships, again no connection with the famous Lloyds’ of London.

3. NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Company) (Government owned and operated)NNPC was established in April 1, 1977. The NNPC by law MANAGES the joint venture between the Nigerian federal government and a number of foreign multinational corporations, which include Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Agip, TotalFinaElf, Chevron, and Texaco. Through collaboration with these companies, the Nigerian government conducts petroleum exploration and development.

The NNPC has sole responsibility for upstream (searching for and the recovery and production of crude oil) and downstream (the refining of crude oil, the selling and distribution of natural gas and products derived from crude oil) developments, and is also in control of regulating and supervising the oil industry on behalf of the Nigerian Government.

According to the Nigerian constitution, all minerals, gas, and oil the country possesses are legally the property of the Nigerian federal government which is managed by the NNPC. In 1988 the NNPC was commercialized into 12 strategic business units, covering the entire oil industry operations, which is, exploration and production, gas development, refining, distribution, petrochemicals, engineering, and commercial investments.

In addition to the 12 business units managed by the NNPC, the oil industry is also regulated by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). The DPR ensures compliance with industry regulations; processes applications for licenses, leases and permits, establishes and enforces environmental regulations. The DPR, and NAPIMS (National Petroleum Investment Management Services) one of the 12 strategic business units managed by NNPC, plays a very crucial role in the day to day activities throughout the industry.

Requirements for Buying/Selling Marketing Crude OilThose who wish to buy and sell Nigerian crude oil must demonstrate their commitment to the oil industry through allocation of adequate resources of capital, equipment and manpower.

Those who are eligible to apply for an allocation must be an upstream investor who has acquired an oil prospecting license and has completed a minimum amount of work on the concession.

Only local refineries, international refineries and international recognized oil & gas traders may apply for an OPL (Oil Prospecting License.) (OPL is a license granted over an area to a company by the Government for the company to conduct exploration activities.

Once a commercial quantity of petroleum or gas is located in an OPL (Oil Prospecting License), an OML (Oil Mining Lease) may be granted to the holder of the OPL to carry out Production activities only in the area covered by the OPL license. Usually, the area covered by a single OML is only a portion of the preexisting OPL.

Here’s how it works.The players are:

The Nigerian Government, (who owns all the oil in Nigeria)NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Company) negotiates the signature bonuses with the biddersNPDC (Nigerian Petroleum Development Company) an E&P(Exploration and Production) Unit also partnership with Agip (a retail gas and diesel Co.) DPR (Department of Petroleum Resources) sets the rules and issues the licenses.

The Nigerian Government offers block (an assigned area for exploration) to be bid upon by:

• An end user who owns a refinery and a sales outlet.• A world recognized oil trader with proof of handling large volume of crude oil in the last three years.• Applicants must have a minimum turnover of no less than $100 million and a net worth of no less than $40 million. • The applicant must invest in opportunities that are in the oil industry or gas sector.• Applicants are required to post a $1 million performance guarantee through a first class Nigerian bankin addition to the regular crude oil contract provisions.

If awarded that block and after oil is located an Oil Mining Lease (OML) is granted to the holder of the OPL to carry out production activities.

High bidder is not always awarded the winning choice block.

Here is an example of how the high bidders’ block can end up being awarded to a company who had a lower bid.

In the year 2000 the Nigerian Government offered 22 new deep-water blocks and 46 oil companies participated in the bidding. There were 51 bids on 14 blocks and only 8 blocks were awarded.

Major signature bonuses (a normal component of the bid process to demonstrate commitment by the companies) were asked for the deep-water blocks. The DPR, expected $900m in signature bonus revenues, mostly from the winners of the eight offshore licenses awarded.

There was competition bidding for block (OPL) 250 believed to be very rich in petroleum. Shell bid $200m against US-based Ocean Energy’s $210m and Brazil Petrobras’ $100m.

Although Ocean Energy had the highest bid they were not awarded block 250 because the NNPC and the NPDC was in disagreement over the sharing of the profits. The NPDC insisted on 30% of the profits instead of the original 20% that was agreed with the government.

The licenses were held up for several months because of this disagreement so Chevron Texaco agreed to give NPDC a 30% share of profit in (OPL) 250 and signed a (PSA) Product Sharing Agreement. The US major holds 50% in this. The partners are Shell (35%) and Petrobras (15%).

The NNPC wishes to state that it does not sell crude oil they only manage the sales of Nigerian oil. Unscrupulous individuals claiming to be officials or agents, directors, CEO of oil companies have extorted huge sums of money from foreigners for fraudulent crude oil allocation papers.

The NNPC wishes to further emphasize that there is nothing like a Presidential, Task Force , Ministerial, Diplomatic, International Agents or any other form of special or privileged allocation, which can be peddled by hawkers, companies or anyone. The NNPC has not given any mandate to anyone person or persons to negotiate the sale of Nigerian Crude oil on its behalf.

The real allocations of oil products are quickly marketed and contracted out to fulfill existing real demand among major oil companies (Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron,, Texaco), this demand of the major oil companies outweighs the oil supply of Nigeria.

The general public is therefore alerted and warned against having any dealings with anyone claiming to have access to special allocation.

If you are contacted with such an offer you can verify it directly with the NNPC Group General Manager at +234 9 234 8200.

There is no official or easy entry to this market on a secondary level. In fact, it is astronomically impossible to enter this market as a non major firm on any level….. One can safely regard any BLCO offer as pure and simple myths.

4. Platts… Market PricesPlatts’ is a leading provider of energy and metal information. Platts’ news, pricing, analytical services and conferences help markets operate with transparency and efficiency. Traders, risk managers, analysts, and industry leaders depend upon platts’ to help them make better trading and investment decisions. http://www.platts.com